"Even if I got rid of all my problems, I'd just go out and get new ones..."

Shh. I think I hear a nest of furry nightcrawlers.
6:40 p.m. on 2003-08-04

Wow.

That is about the only way to describe the last three days.

Met my group on Thursday - three Brits called Seth Izzy and Sharon and two Swiss. Us Brits headed off on Friday to an Amazonian lodge called La Selva. This is in the middle of the jungle miles from anywhere looking out across a lake. The buildings are made from natural materials and the electricity is all generator based. I shared a hut with Izzy - pretty basic but with a shower and a toilet. There were a fair number of creepy crawlies outside but we only saw a couple of cockraoches in the bathroom inside. Although the wolf spider on the outside of our window was bloody terrifying!

Our local leader Gus took us around the jungle on various trips which were a mix of trekking in wellies through mud and exploring lakes on canoes. We saw huge amounts of wildlife - mostly birds and insects - but we did see various species of monkey some turtles and the eyes of a caman - a croccodile like creature.

I found it impossible to sleep on the first night given the jungle noise the heat and my paranoia over furry beasties but by the second night I had recovered to the extent that I dropped straight off and didn�t wake until Gus banged on our wall at 6am the next morning.

Other activities included a butterfly house and piranha fishing. If you ever get the chance to do this you have to try. You dangle a piece of meat deep into the water then wait for a bite before hauling the line in as quickly as possible. I caught the first fish! Only about three inches across but what teeth! A fellow traveller Giovanni managed to catch another two which were big enough to be caught and eaten. Yum!

There was also a trip to a local house lived in by a young mother her husband and her eight kids. No walls just a thatched roof and a platform on stilts from the river mud. A fire for cooking. The kids go to primary school but there is no education after 11 years of age. They were very inviting gifting us with a yeast like drink in return for some candy but they were also very shy. They seemed genuinely pleased to see us - the mother who was truly beautiful in appearance even apologised for the dirt on her floor! (like we cared in our boots).

The people here are SO friendly from the family in the jungle to the people on Quitos streets. We head to Banos tomorrow so I will be able to see if this is the same all over Ecuador!

As soon as I am home I will scan some jungle photos and post them here. Until then have a look at La Selva�s website:

http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/

Random thing: an American lady from another jungle group inflicting her guitar playing - and her awful voice - on us in the form of Beatles numbers. Grrr.

<< >>